Sheet-metal display box



.F. WESTERBECK.

SHEET METAL DISPLAY BOX.

APPLICATION FILED JUNE 27.1919.

1,411,463. Patented p 4, 1922.

DOE BISCUIT COMPANY 9 5+. bouls, Mo.

a2? MM r@ 165% omran stares PATENT FOF'FICE.

FREDERICK WESTERBECK, OF ST. LOUIS, MISSOURI.

SHEET-METAL DISPLAY BOX.

narrate.

Application filed June 27,

I To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, FREDERICK Wns'rna- BECK, a citizen of the United. States of America, a resident of the city of St. Louis, in the State of Missouri, have invented certainnew and useful Improvements in Sheet- Metal Display Boxes, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, forming a part of this specification.

My invention relates to display boxes intended more particularly for holding and displaying bakery products, such as crackers and small cakes, andthe display fronts of which are provided with sight openings having transparent panels therein, and also with signs, usually indicating either, or both,

the names .of the manufacturers and the contents of theboxes. Such display boxes are now commonly made with display fronts of brass or other metal which may be readily polished from time to time to provide an atof dust or other foreign matter.

The fronts of theboxes are necessarily weakened 1n forming-sign and sight openings thereln, and as a consequence 1t has been found that when said fronts are polished they are too. weak to withstand the pressure applied to them without bending the metal in the box fronts.

One ofthe objects of my present invention is to provide a display box front with a sign-receiving opening, and a dished sign so held in said opening as to exclude the entrance of dirt or foreign matter around the sign to the interior of the box. A fur ther object of the invention is to provide means for so locking the sign as toforce it tightly into'the opening provided therefor. A

the top of the'box.

Specification of Letters Patent. Patent d A 4' 1922 1919. serial No.-307-,164.

still further object of the invention is to provide a fastening device serving the dual function of retaining the transparent sight panel and the sign. Another object of the invention is to provide means whereby the weak portion of the box front between the signreceiving opening and the sight opening 13, so reinforced that it will effectually wlthstand strain imposed thereagainst in the act of. polishing the box front. 1

Fig. I is a front elevation, partly in vertical section, of my display box.

Fig. II is an enlarged vertical section through the display front of my box.

Fig. III is an enlarged horizontal-section taken through one of the front corners near Fig. IV is an'elevation of a fragment of the box front, showing the fastening device for retaining the sight panel and the sign.

The body ofmy display box, aside from the box front, and thefeatures coexistent therewith, maybe of any ordinary construction, including a bottom A, and side walls B. At the forward end of the bottom A is a vertical flange a and back of and parallel with said flangeis a stop a which is spaced from said flange.

D designates the front of my displaybox as a whole, said front being secured to the bottom flange a and the side walls B. In theloox front D in a sign plate opening 1 surrounded by a rearwardly extending marginal'flange 2, preferably inclined from the vertical plane of the box front as seen most clearly in Figs. II and III. The box front also contains a sight opening 8 surrounded by a marginal flange 4 similar to the marginal flange surrounding the sign opening. Between said openings land 8 is a web 5 including in its structure portions of the flanges 2 and 4. For thepurposeof reinforcing this web, which is the weakest portion of the box front, I dispose at-the rear thereof stiffening strips6 and 7 extending longitudinally of, and, securedto, the web, and which also serve asholders for the sign and sight panels, as will hereinafter appear. The stiffener strip 6 is of Z-shape in cross section and comprises a wing secured to the web 5, a horizontal ledge member extending rearwardly from said web, and anupstanding rear wing 8 spaced from the portion of the flange 2 at the upper margin of the web 5. The stiffener strip 7 is of L-shape in cross section, the upper horizontal wing of said strip being secured to the ledge member of the strip 6 and the other'wing extending downwardly substantially parallel with the tral portion and resting against the rearwardly'extending flange 2 surrounding the opening 1. Upon the side walls B of the box body are rounded abutments 11, said abutments being located above and slightly rearwardly from the portions of the mar ginal flanges 2 above the sign-receiving opening 1. When the sign E is to be put in p ace in the box front, its upper margin is passed between the upper portion of the ange 2 adjacent the rounded abutments 11 in an'inclined position and moved upwardly and then forwardly until the lower edge of the sign may be passed forwardly towards the wing 8 of the stiffener 6 and then lowered in front of said wing so as to be held in position between the flange 2 and wing 8. The upper portion of the sign is thus tightly wedged against the upper portion of the flange 2 due to the relative positions of the upper portion of said flange and said abutments 11. The lower portion of the sign is tightly wedged against the lower portion of the flange 2 at the bottom of the sign opening l'by means to be hereinafter described.

12 designates a sight panel which closes the sight opening 3 by contacting with the flange 4 surrounding said opening. The upper edge of this sight panel extends into a pocket back of the web 5 of the display front,andbetween it and'the stiffener strip 7 and thelower edge of the panel is seated in front of the stop a upon the'bottoin of the box after the panel has been passed oversaid stop from the position in which it is seen in dotted lines, Fig. II;

*A fastening device F for securing the sign E and the sight panel D is mounted upon the stiffener strip 7. This fastening device is pivotally supported at 13 and comprises an arm 14 having a finger 15 which extends through an opening 7 in the stiffener strip 7 and overliesthe upper edge of the'sight panel 12 to restrain said panel from vertical movement. The fastening device also comprises a yieldable arm 16, which terminates in a downturned finger 17 adapted to enter a forwardly inclined notch 8 formed in the wing 8 of the stiffener strip 6. When the fastening device F is swung on its pivot, the finger 15 is moved through the opening 7 in the stiffener strip 7 and the arm 16 sprung upwardly and then lowered, so that its finger 17 enters the inclined notch 8 and moves downwardly therein to force the lower edge of the sign E against the lower portion of the flange 2 surrounding the sign-receiving opening 1. The sign is thereby tightly impinged against said flange, and being also held tightly against the flange by the abutmentsll so closes the sign-receiving opening of the display front as to eliminate all possibility of entrance of dirt or other foreign matter through the said opening to the interior of the box.

I claim:

1. A display box having a front provided with a display opening and a sign-receiv ing opening, a closure plate for said display opening, a sign-confining member on said front adjacent said sign, said sign-confining member having a notch therein inclined toward said sign, and a fastening device insert-ible into said inclined notch to press against said sign and hold it firmly against the margin of the sign-receiving opening, and also to lock the closure plate tothe box.

2. A display box having a front provided with a sign-receiving opening, and a sight opening separated by an intervening web, a stiffening device fixedly secured to the back of and extending the length of said web, a sign fitted to said sign-receiving opening and entering into said stiffening device, and a sight panel fitted to said sight opening and entering into said stiffening device.

3. A display box having a front provided with a sign-receiving opening and a sight opening separated by an intervenin web, stiffening means for said web comprising a Z-shaped wing member secured to andextending the length of said Web and an L- shaped member secured to and extending the length of said Z-shaped member.

4. A display box havinga frontprovided' with a sign-receiving opening bounded by a marginal rearwardly extending flange and a sight opening separated by an intervening web and bounded by a marginal rearwardly extending flange, a stiffening device secured to the back of said web, said stiffening device having a free edge parallel with and spaced from the marginal flange of said sign-receiving opening, a sign in said opening between said marginal flange and said free edge, said stiffening device having an other free edge parallel with and spaced from the marginal flange of the sight opening, a sight panel fitted in said sight-opening between said marginal flange of the sight opening and the last mentioned free edge, and fastening means on said st-ifi'ener having a finger insertable between said first named stifiener edge and said sign to Wedge said sign in a confined position and also havinga finger insertable through said second named stifi'ener edge and contacting with the upper edge of said sight panel so as to prevent vertical movement thereof.

In testimony that I claim the foregoing I hereunto aifix my signature.

FREDERICK \VESTERBECK. 

